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The Tironians established at least four alien priories
during the first quarter of the 12th century. These were dependent on
a mother house in France, hence called classified aliens. The aim of an
alien priory was not always that of a full conventual house; some were
houses of estate managers. When donations from Norman landowners ceased,
alien priories often remained poor. The Abbey of Tiron did not include
a workforce of lay-brothers in its order and was suppressed as such in
1391. Below is a picture of the 'Mother Abbey' at Tiron, France.
Pill Priory was founded between 1161-1170 as a daughter house of St Dogmaels, near Cardigan, West Wales (Click here for area map), which had itself been established in 1113 as a priory of the newly-founded Tironian (or Tironensian) Order of reformed Benedictine monks (gray-clad monks - Roman Catholic monastic order). Over time, it is believed that the house acquired some 1300 acres of land.Hoever, it is believed that Pill was poor compared with other monastic houses.
The Tironians were founded in 1109 by St. Bernard d'Abbeville (.pdf -725kb) also known as Bernard of Tiron (.pdf 815kb), abbot of the Benedictine house of St Cyprien, near Poitiers in north-west France, who moved his community to Tiron in the Diocese of Chartres in 1113, encouraging a return to the strict rule of St. Benedict which had, he felt, not been observed by the official Benedictine order. In that year he was visited by Robert Fitzmartin, the Norman Lord of the newly-conquered territory of Cemais, who brought back thirteen monks and a prior to form the basis of a new community which was installed at St. Dogmaels in 1113, hitherto a monastery following a ‘Celtic’ rule. In 1120 St Dogmaels was raised to abbey status but retained allegiance to the mother house of Tiron until the dissolution of the 1530s.
The community at St Dogmaels quickly established daughter houses of its own, eventually comprising three priories. The first in 1117, on Caldey Island, was by tradition founded by Fitzmartin’s mother in 1115. The Charter Roll of 1121 records the grant and confirmation by ‘Robert, son of Martin, to the monks of Tiron and the monastery of St. Mary at St. Dogmaels of the Island of Pyr, granted by his mother'. Like the mother house of St Dogmaels, Caldey was the site of a pre-existing Celtic monastic community.
Godebert and FitzGodebert, originally said to be from Flanders in Belgium, were in Wales by the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). Richard FitzGodebert of Flanders, a Flemish Knight, who
settled in Roch Parish (1133) Wales was granted lands previously owned
by Lambert Echiners (now Lambton) in Pembroke(shire). While of Flemish
descent, 
the family adopted the style of their Norman allies. Rodbert
FitzGodebert de Roch being Richard's brother had three sons, David, Henry
and Adam (they accepted the spelling 'de Roch' in French
and 'de Rupe/de Rupella' in Latin [de Roch/de la Roche]. An extensive and informative website about the Roache/Roach/Roche/Roch family (by Jim Roache - Canada) can be found by clicking here.
The exact date of the establishment of Pill Priory is not known, but the founder, Adam de Roche of the Barony of Roch (who was born about 1160 in Of Castle, Roch, Pembrokeshire, Wales), was active in the later 12th century and a date of c.1200 has traditionally been assigned to the foundation. At a somewhat later date, the Roche family founded a further daughter house on their lands at Glascarreg, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Adam's possessions were very extensive. His dominium included churches in Steynton, Saint Kewit (Cewydd), St Mary of Rupe (Roche), St David of Newcastle and St Nicholas of New Mote
Unlike St Dogmaels and Caldey, Pill Priory
was a de nova foundation and there is no suggestion of any pre-existing religious
establishment on the site. The priory church was dedicated jointly
to St Budoc, in the Celtic tradition, and the Blessed Virgin.
The joint dedication may have been a concession
to the native population, but the colonisation of the house by monks from
St Dogmaels, possibly one of the first Norman abbeys to recruit Welshmen,
may have influenced the choice, Welsh monks having doubtless been well
aware of their native monastic tradition.
Apparently, documents show Adam de Roach (Rupe) endowing Pill to the Order of Tiron, as witnessed by Bishop Peter de Leia, St David's [1176-1198] which sets the timeframe. The original charter has been lost and the sole remaining source is an inspeximus from AD 1294-5, which reads: 'For the monks of Pill. The king etc....We have inspected a charter which Adam de Roche made to God and St Mary and St Budoc and the monks of the Order of Tiron, in the monastery of Pill in these words: I, Adam de Roche, founding a monastery in my land of Pill, with the consent and assent of my heir, my wife Blandina have given, granted and by this, my present charter, confirmed to God and St Mary and St Budoc and the monks of the order of Tiron there....etc., etc....(Charter Roll, 25 Ed I, Membrane 7, July 13, 1294-5, reproduced in Calendar of Charter Rolls, Vol. II, Henry III - Edward I, 1257-1300 (1906), 468-9)
Pill Priory is unusually complex for a British Tironian priory, which appear mainly to have been small and compact like between these houses and the Tironian abbeys, of which St Dogmaels and five houses in Scotland are the only British examples. The church appears to have been unaisled, cruciform around a three-storey central tower, and of moderate size.
The suriving fragments appear to be of a single build, which is stylistically transitional and contemporary with the foundation date·range.
The present assemblage of two·storey buildings (The cottage called 'The Steps' and the 'Priory Inn' public House) south of the church appear to incorporate the remains of vaulted, conventual buildings including an east range of vaulted chambers and a southern chamber, possibly a kitchen or warming house, that may not have formed part of a proper south range.
However, they cannot be closely dated, having been
extensively rebuilt for 'Iower·gentry' domestic use after the Dissolution,
when the church appears to have been abandoned.
Evidence for a west range
is so far absent but a possible inlinnary was suggested by geophysics.
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